"Time is not for wasting. So decisions have to be made about how we use our time this year," Ms Gillard said in a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra.

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It comes as Opposition Leader Tony Abbott launched a mini-campaign, ahead of the first week of parliament next week.

Mr Abbott said the Coaliton was ready for the election, adding that it would be won or lost on trust.

September 14 is well before the latest possible election date for the House of Representatives of November 30, 2013.

The writs for the election will be issued on August 12, setting up a short parliamentary year until the election. This will see the House of Representatives dissolved and half the Senate up for re-election.

The election date falls on the Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur. Liberal frontbencher and member for Wentworth Malcolm Turnbull said he was deeply disappointed about the clash.

"Deeply disappointed that Julia Gillard chose to hold the election on Yom Kippur - the most solemn and sacred day of the Jewish year," he posted on Twitter.

Australians' patience being 'tried'

The Prime Minister explained that she did not announce the date today to start the nation's ''longest election campaign''.

"It should be clear to all which are the days of governing and which are the days of campaigning," she said.

Ms Gillard said that last year Australians' patience was tried by "months of boiling hot political debate with most of it somewhat ironically about global warming".

"In 2013, I am determined their patience is not tried again," she said.

Ms Gillard said that not everything about the "tenor and temperature" of the debate in the coming election year was in her control.

"But I can act to clear away the carry-on that comes with speculation about when the election will be held," she said.

"I can create an environment in which the nation's eyes are more easily focused on the policies, not the petty politics. I can act so Australia's Parliament and government serves their full three-year-term."

Ms Gillard said that she had always said that the parliament would serve a full term.

"There's only a limited number of dates on which the election could held," Ms Gillard said, saying she had thought about the election date over the summer.

She said she had consulted Treasurer Wayne Swan and a few senior colleagues about the election date.

Election to be won on trust

Mr Abbott was in Melbourne this morning, continuing his "mini-campaign". He visited a cancer centre in East Melbourne and attended a community morning tea in Sunbury.

Since the hung parliament in 2010, he has repeatedly called for another election.

Mr Abbott made a short media statement at Parliament House on Wednesday, in which he told reporters the election would be about trust.

"The Coalition is ready," he said. "We are so ready that have already launched our 'Real Solutions' plan and we are campaigning on it."

Mr Abbott said that the choice between the two major parties "could not be clearer", describing the 2013 election as a choice between more tax or less, more competence or less, and more freedom or less.

The Opposition Leader did not take questions, explaining that he was addressing the National Press Club on Thursday and would answer questions then.

Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey responded to the news by noting on Twitter: "Election on Sept. 14 is before the final budget outcome is revealed for the current year."

Independents, Greens welcome move

Ms Gillard's announcement has been welcomed by independent MPs Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor, who were also told of the date ahead of Ms Gillard's speech.

"The early announcement of the federal election date of September 14 is good for the nation," Mr Windsor said.

"I congratulate the Prime Minister on her decision to provide the Australian people with some direction and certainty as to when they will go to the polls."

Greens leader Christine Milne said everyone knew an election would be held this year but the announcement would put an end to speculation about exactly when.

"It's going to be a great year; it's going to be an exhausting year for everyone in the political process," she said.

Independent South Australian senator Nick Xenophon also welcomed the announcement.

"This is a quasi-fixed term parliament now. I think it is a good for democracy. We all know now when we'll be put out of our misery," he said, adding that it was good for independents who did not have big party machines to back them.

Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie said the early announcement was a positive development but cautioned it would be wasted if it meant there was a seven and a half month campaign.

"Yes, let's talk about the election, but not forget there's still a significant period of this parliament left to run," he said in a statement.

Mr Baillieu said: "Instead of focussing on dates the Prime Minister should focus on the impact of her hospital funding cuts and immediately restore the funding to Victorian hospitals."

Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews said he was a supporter of fixed term elections. "It's a good thing to have this sort of certainty about elections dates," he said.

Rudd comeback 'unlikely'

Labor strategist Bruce Hawker said that leadership considerations were irrelevant.

"This has got nothing to do with who will be the leader at the next election," he told ABC TV.

He said he was unaware of any prospect of a leadership change within Labor. "I think it is getting less and less likely that we are going to see a change at the top."

Supporters of the former prime minister concede any further leadership comeback was already unlikely.

However his camp believed the prime minister's intervention in the preselection of Nova Peris had played badly for her and could have led to a revival of Mr Rudd's chances.

"The decision [about whether to challenge] has now been locked in," a Labor MP said, adding it was all but impossible for any leadership action to be taken.

Labor MPs have already been sent their lines telling them how to explain the unusual decision about the election date.

An internal caucus document was sent to all Labor MPs shortly after Ms Gillard made the announcement telling them to stress to people that "this is not going to be the nation's longest campaign" and explaining that the decision was made to "give order to the year".

One MP described the decision as "bizarre" saying it would "undermine" events such as local business or community awards or visits to school.

"People will say I'm just doing it for the election," the MP said.

'De facto campaign' begins

Scott Prasser, executive director of the Australian Catholic University's Public Policy Institute, said Ms Gillard's "unprecedented" move would benefit the government because it could keep campaigning with government resources.

"Normally when you announce the election, you go to the Governor-General and enter caretaker mode,'' he said.

''By doing it this far out she can run more of a de facto election campaign with all the resources at her back and grind down Tony Abbott.

"By making this announcement it will change the tenor of all debates between now and September."

Professor Prasser said it was an attempt to more proactively set the agenda for the year, but it also removed the opportunity for Ms Gillard to use the element of surprise to call an election at any time.

He said he believed the move would put pressure on the opposition to spell out more detailed policies.

808 comments

Nine months too long...

Commenter

Reality Check

Date and time

January 30, 2013, 10:16AM

Oh come on. 2013 is now effectively written off. I cannot believe the PM would do this to the nation. Announce a September election in January?? Labor was going to suffer at the polls already but after this....it will be a landslide. This is the last straw in a barn with very little straw left.

Commenter

Gazza

Location

In hell now!

Date and time

January 30, 2013, 10:27AM

Agreed, Nine moths of that twat Abbott talking, the sooner he looses the better the country will be and something constructive can be achieved..

Commenter

Andy.J

Date and time

January 30, 2013, 10:28AM

@Reality Check, you're right. If last year and the behavior of our elected 'leaders' was anything to go by, it's going to be very, very long. To make it worse, we've got poor choices on both sides. This may sound shallow, but if the libs get in,to hear less of JG's excruciatingly painfull voice, and patronizing tone, will be worth it.

Commenter

Simon

Location

Sydney

Date and time

January 30, 2013, 10:29AM

+1

Though there should be additions to the poll that reads:

"It's about bloody time too"!or"Not soon enough"!

Finally we can get our say!!

Commenter

Indeed

Date and time

January 30, 2013, 10:29AM

Try reading the Constitution and the Electoral Act some time. It can't be much earlier than that. The earliest possible date is about 24 August.

Commenter

Meanwhile

Location

in the real world

Date and time

January 30, 2013, 10:30AM

bring it on. Can't wait to dump her arse like happened to labor in Qld and NSW.

BYE BYE Juliar.

BYE BYE carbon tax.

Hello truth in government and straight talking, none of your squirming and evasive answers, and do and say ANYTHING to remain in power. Your time is up!

Commenter

peter

Date and time

January 30, 2013, 10:34AM

What about the cost of a long campaign ??

Commenter

greg

Location

sydney

Date and time

January 30, 2013, 10:34AM

The only good thing shes done during her entire prime-ministership

Commenter

wee

Date and time

January 30, 2013, 10:35AM

Reality Check - please take one.this is the first time a PM has not done the frustrating dance of the seven by 2nd guessing everyone when the election will be. (J Howard was so annoying about this - picking the sweetest point to optimise victory....)Good on Juliar for being so upfront and honest about this. If anything - I really hope that future PM's will follow.

30 Jan
The election seven-and-a-half months hence is now Abbott's to lose. He has, or so the polls suggest, a margin with voters that would see the Coalition winning comfortably, if not with a landslide. Yet the same polls suggest that many voters have reservations about Abbott personally, and about his ''secret agenda''. This is why, so it is said, Abbott must now go ''positive'', switch to outlining detailed policies and give a message of hope and optimism to make voters more comfortable with the inevitable.

30 Jan
When the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, announced the federal election today, most would think the focus would have been on the September 14 date. But instead, murmurs were about her new glasses and hair colour.

30 Jan
At least one Jewish MP will not participate on election day because it falls on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Judaic calendar. But the head of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Peter Wertheim, says the clash of dates on September 14 ''is not an issue''

30 Jan
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has declared the September 14 election will be ''about trust'' as he flagged a campaign to paint the Gillard government as incompetent and rehabilitate his ''Mr No'' image.

31 Jan
If the economists' forecasts are right - a big if - the economy is likely to be in worse shape by the time of the election. It won't have collapsed in a heap, but it is expected to be noticeably slower, with unemployment creeping up steadily.